Johanna Garth is the author of The Persephone Campbell Series; a modern take on the myth of Hades and Persephone. Johanna lives in McLean, Virginia with her husband and two children.

Monday, October 1, 2012

What's Your Monster?

It's October and the theme almost writes itself.

Monsters, big and small.

Many of the monsters I talk about this month will be traditional creepsters in writing guise. Writers all struggle with demons.

A fact well-evidence by the success of my blogger friend Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group.

I enjoy reading about other writer's insecurities. There's something sweater-in-autumn cozy about the reassurance of knowing you're not alone. All those other writers, slogging away at their keyboard, late at night, during the day or in the quiet hours of pre-dawn, experience the same doubts.There are ups followed by downs, followed by hills and brief valleys. It's cyclical, almost as predictable as the seasons.

So this is my month of creepy-crawlies, both writerly and not so much. Instead of a once a month Insecure Writer's Support Group post it will be a full on blitz. I'm getting ready to purge my demons, expose them to their core. Maybe with enough sunlight, they'll shrivel up and blow away.

Or maybe I'll discover some new ones.

Which might not be an entirely bad thing. Because, honestly, who wants an angst-free, Pollyanna sunshine writer who produces happy pamphlets of joy.

Well, maybe there's a place for that. One thing I've learned as a writer is there are as many kinds of stories as there are people.

Personally, I like my stories to veer toward things dark and creeping with a side of spiders and a dash of vampire. But we'll talk about that later, after all, we have all month.

Monsters, Demons, Vampires... Awww!!! The metaphorical life blood and life drainers of the writer... and, well, the human being. I consider myself lucky to have writing to exorcise my demons... So I look forward to your examination of yours... Maybe we can all find a little inspiration in our insecurities dressed in costumes to fool us into thinking we need them... :-)